Oh Australia, how needy you are. I know you want it to be special, steve. Different, somehow. But really, your USP is the weather and even that seems not so terrific when you examine the facts rather than the tourist brochures. Friend of mine, spent a year in Sydney. Said the waves were shit the whole time. A year of shit waves. Another friend, has spent a lot of time in Sydney, reckons the waves there are a bit better than here but only a bit. Why the hell do you think there are so many Swanseas and Newports in Australia? You're basically living in Wales just with more flies, making me eminently qualified to comment

The traffic was really light and it was pleasant and easy to surf anywhere on the island, and as a bonus some of these places were semi-secret and uncrowded.

As Bali got more crowded I started to spend less and less time there, so for the next 20 years it was off to Lombok, Sumbawa, Timor and West Java (all places I had first surfed in the 80's)

It was only when my wife got sick that I started staying in Bali again, otherwise I would probably never have gone back. Never-the-less though, I made the best of a bad thing and in the end I made friends with a lot of people and, surprisingly, found that it was OK out on the Bukit. That may change at any time (cheap Brazilian flights!), but I have been to both Timor and west Sumbawa in the last 5 years, and have found them just as (or even more) crowded and less consistent.

Maybe its time to start exploring the Mentawais. The agreement with my wife is one month at a time though and its a bit of a hassle to get there and back. If anyone is interested give me a yell. It has to be cheap and in losmens run by the locals though.

Rent in Queenstown is bloody cheap. We have decided to either rent in Queenstown to help with savings for a home or Burnie were there is a specialist Autism School that is known across Australia. Our youngest is just about 4 and severely speech delayed so Burnie is another option. The rent in Burnie is similar to gympie

I know people that moved to Queenstown last year, they like it. Apparently you can get a house for 35,000. But what sort of house? Strauhn may have waves over summer with the easterlies blowing and zero swell, looks like a shallow beach. Having trial bay as a back up for when you get desperate wouldn't work so well IMO as it is a serious wave so if you haven't been surfing for a while it will eat you. I'd take what is being said on here about small town living with a grain of salt, Penong looks like no more than a truck stop, but it's a thriving community as you have found in other town in your travels.

Spot on here bloke. We like small town living so that part won’t bother us. The surf is a worry but I’ve had a great surfing life so looking after my family ain’t a bad thing. Lots to think on. Thinking around Burnie for renting and surf just around the top maybe??